Picture-exhibiting machine.



vMTENTED DBG. 31, 1907.

R. B. COLE.

PICTURE EXHIBITING MACHINE.

' APPLICATION FILED PERES. 1907:.

' ZSHEHTS-SHEET 1.

No. 874,940. PATENTED DEC. 31. 1907.

R. B. COLE.

PIGTURB EXHIBITING MACHINE.

APPLIGATION FILED PEB. za, 1907.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

` i III-:Illi- A TTRNEKS IINIT- ROUDY BUSH COLE, OF FREDERICKTOW, MISSOURI.

PICTURE-EXHIBITING MACHINE'.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 31, 1907.

Application led February 28. 1907. Serial No. 359,812.

To all whom 'it may concern.'

Be it known that I, ROUDY BUsn COLE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Fredericktown, in the county of Madison and State of Missouri, have invented a new and useful Picture-Exhibiting Machine, of which the following is a speciiication.

This invention has reference to improvements in picture exhibiting devices, and its object is to produce a device whereby a series of pictures may be viewed in succession after the same have been released by the insertion of a coin of suitable value.

The invention consists essentially in a rotatable drum carrying a number of pictures, preferably of the stereoscopic order, arranged to be moved so as to fall one after the other by gravity into the focus of a suitable viewing lens, which may also be of the stereoscopic type, the said drum to be rotated at the 'will of the person viewing the pictures but always in the same direction, so that after a picture has been viewed and another one has been moved into place the device cannot be rotated backward to view the other picture again. In connection with the rotating drum there is provided a locking device under the control of a coin of suitable value which, when inserted, will unlock the drum so that it may be rotated by the person desiring to look at the pictures, and when the drum is rotated to bring the first new view into the line of sight it will cause the escape of the coin to a suitable receptacle. Provision is made whereby any article of too light weight inserted in the coin slot will fail to unlock the machine, and any article too heavy will unlock and escape from the slot and immediately cause the re-locking of the machine.

The invention will be fully understood from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification, in which,-

Figure l is a longitudinal vertical section through the machine near one end thereof,

lparts being shown in elevation; and Fig. 2 1s a horizontal section showlng the working` parts in elevation.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown a casing l of which one side 2 may be used to support certain parts of the mechanism to be hereinafter described, and one corner is cut away on a bevel and is supplied with a "hinged cover 3 so arranged that this hinged cover may be turned back on the top l and the interior of the casing be thereby accessible'for the purpose of changing from time to time the picture-carrying mechanism and for other purposes. Extending centrally through the casing is a rotatable shaft 4 journaled at each end in U-shaped brackets 5 fast on the sides of the casing and from which the shaft and parts carried thereby may be lifted when desired without the necessity of removing any fastening devices. Upon the shaft is secured a drum 6 terminating in heads 7. This drum is intended to support picture-carrying leaves 8, or, if

desired, the picture mounts themselves. These picture mounts or carriers are Journaled at each end in the heads 7, as indicated at 9, and stop pins 10 may be provided in the path of the mounts or carriers 8 and projecting inwardly from the head 7 so that when the drum is rotated in the manner hereinafter described these picture mounts or carriers will be brought to a vertical'position and finally overbalance to fall into a horizontal position and there be caught by pins or brackets l1 fast on the inside of the casing in anv appropriate position for the purpose.

On one end of the 4 drum is secured a toothed disk l2 having as many teeth as there are pictures to be exhibited, although in the drawing there are shown only half the number of picture-carrying leaves 8 that there are teeth in this disk. In the practical embodiment of the invention the number of picture-carrying leaves will equal the number of teeth on the disk l2.

It will be seen that when the drum 6 is rotated in the proper direction, which will be clockwise asviewed in Fig. l, the picture carriers on the lowermost portion of the drum will hang pendent and as they are` carried up the left side of the drum, as viewed in Fig. 1, they will ultimately be caught by the pins 10 and rest thereon nearly tangent to the drum until they iinally overbalance and fall'by gravity to the horizontal position shown at the right side of Fig. l, where their outer ends will be engaged and held by the pins or brackets 11. In this latter position the face of the picture is upward and it is then in line with a suitable lens or lenses 13 mounted in a suitable carrier 14 extending through the top of the casing and provided with racks 15 engaged by pinions 16 on a horizontal shaft 17 extending through and journalcd in the sides of the casing and at one side provided with a manipulating milled or other type of operating wheel 18 whereby the carrier 14 may be moved into and out of the casing 1 to bring the lenses 13 into proper relation with the picture on the horlzontal carrier S to accommodate the focus of the lenses to suit different eyes. The carrier 14 is provided with a light-excluding hood 19 of the type usually provided for stereoscopes. On one side of the casing near the lenses 13 and adjacent to the picture then inthe focus of the lenses is a glass window 20 permitting light to enter upon the picture and thus brilliantly illuminate it for view through the lenses. j

Journaled in the side of the casing to one side of the line of the shaft 4 is a spindle 21 having outside the casing a milled manipulating wheel 22 and on the inside of the casing a disk 23 carrying near its periphery a circular series of projecting pins 24 arranged to engage one by one the teeth of the disk 12, and these pins 24 are so spaced that each pin engages a corresponding tooth ofthe disk 12 1n succession.

At the meeting points of two of the teeth of the disk 12 there is a deep groove 25. Extending radially into the disk and arranged to enter this deep groove is a pendent arm 26 pivotally or otherwise secured to the end of a lever 27 pivotally secured at a point 28 to the si'de 2 ofthe casing. The connection between the arm 26 and lever 27 is such that when the lever is turned on its pivot in one direction this arm 26 will move into the slot or groove 25, and when the lever is moved in the other direction this arm 26 will be drawn out of the slot 25. The end 29 of the lever remote from the arm 25 is located under the lower open end of a coin conduit 30, the upper end 31 of which latter is extended through the hinged cover 3 into position where a coin may be readily inserted.

Engaging the lever near its point of connection with the arm 26 is a spring 32 of such strength as to permit movement of the lever 27 when a coin 33 engages its end 29 to an extent which will just draw the arm or dog 26 free from the slot or groove 25 but not out of the path of the teeth on the disk 12.

AWhen the parts are in this position the coin is caught between the end of the lever and the lower mouth of the coin chute and is there held. Under these conditions the arm may rotate the head 22 counter-clockwise and thereby cause the drum 6 to be rotated clockwise, and the next picture in the series to the one which was formerly lying horizontal is overbalanced and Jfalls upon the pins 11 while the picture previously supported by these pins has been drawn downward until 'carried thereby successively into view.

the end of the carrier 8 has escaped from the pins and the picture carrier falls to a pendent position. During this operation the iirst tooth of the disk 12 in order after the slot or groove 25 has engaged the end of the arm 26 and raised the corresponding end of the lever 27, must be pressing the end 29 against the action of the spring 32. This movement is sufficient to allow the escape of the coin. The drum cannot be rotated backward for the reason that the dog 26 has but a limited pivotal movement toward the lever 27, only sufficient to allow it to move radially into and out of the slot 25. This dog, therefore, acts as a back-stop, engaging the shoulders of the ratchet teeth should there be an attempt to turn the drum backward. The continued rotation of the drum 6 may now be effected by the operator until the groove 25 is again brought into a position coincident with the arm 26 when the spring 32 will cause this arm to enter the groove and thus lock the drum against further rotation, after it has been rotated to bring all the pictillres '1e coin may fall to the bottom of the case or into a suitable receptacle provided for the purpose.

Should a coin of light weight be introduced into the machine the arm or dog 26 will not be raised su'l'liciently to escape from the groove 25, and should a coin or slug of too great weight be introduced into the machine it will lift the arm 26 free from the slot or groove 25 but it will also move the lever 29 to so great an extent as to cause the escape of the coin or slug and the ,lever 29 will be returned by the spring 32 to a position where the arm or dog 26 will again enter the slot 25 and re-lock the machine against manipulation.

I claim:-

1. In an apparatus of the class described, a rotatable member, a ratchet wheel mov- 'able with the rotatable member and provided with peripheral ratchet teeth, a radial groove or slot in the ratchet wheel in the plane of the peripheral teeth and adjacent to one of said teeth, a lever having at one end a piv- Oted dog or locking member movable into and out of the groove or slot in the ratchet- Wheel and acting as a back-stop for said ratchet wheel, and a coin chute having its inner end adjacent to the other end of the lever and arranged to direct a coin into engagement with the other end of the lever.

2. In a coin-controlled apparatus, a locking and releasing mechanism therefor, comprising a ratchet wheel having peripheral teeth and a radial groove or slot extending into the body of the ratchet wheel in the radial plane of and to a greater extent than the ratchet teeth, a lever carrying at one end a dog movable into and out of the groove or slot in the ratchet wheel and coacting with the ratchet teeth to act as a back-stop for said ratchet my own, I have hereto affixed my signature Wheel, and memns coaleting with the lever in in the presence of two Witnesses. o 3 oston to t 1e Wei' 1t of a coin to ermt a lgvement of the levr by the coin t1?) an' eX- ROUDY BUSH COLE' 5 tent sufheent to carry the dog out of the slot Vtnesses:

but not out of the path of the ratchet teeth. HARRY STEVENSON,

In testimony that I MClaim the foregoing as JOI-IN R. CASEY. 

